


a dusty old gun.docx

by GhostApocalyptic



Series: Ghost's Really Long And Terrible UT Fanfics [3]
Category: Archived- Do Not Search
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-06-05 15:41:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15173927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostApocalyptic/pseuds/GhostApocalyptic
Summary: i forgot i used to work on stories with like 2 docs open at once so i had a place to put all my runaway ideas so heres those i guess? these are all stupid as hell lmao. also im putting any abandoned arcs here too





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> OHHH THE PTA AU I FORGOT ABOUT THAT

 

You wonder entirely _why_ Frisk even bothers to stay in grade school. Knowing that they’re five years ahead of their peers in experience, you’d think they’d use those repeats to skip ahead a grade or two. But here they were, at one of the local elementary schools.

And boy, was the PTA a hell.

Parents, mostly women your age, flocked to the meetings like their life depended on it. And in charge was a very opinionated woman, whose name you learned was Linda. Felt like a name _your_ mom would have, but you aren’t going to judge someone on something so petty as that.

Sans appeared around fifteen minutes into the meeting, out of nowhere. You assumed he slipped in when nobody was looking. He held a paper plate stacked with the mediocre brownies and bakery cookies that were at the snack table, and was happily munching on them. You don’t understand how skeletons even eat, but you passed it off as magic. Also, monster biology was weird. You learned to roll with it.

“heya. want some?” he asked, offering up his plate.  

“Nah. They always like this?” You were referring to Linda, who was arguing with another parent about the safety of vaccines. She seemed really into it, despite her argument being proven wrong by several hundred medical studies in the past decade. Some things never die, you guess.

Sans chuckled. “you have no idea.”

* * *

 

It’s dark.

So dark. You wade through the knee-high water. It sloshes in your boots uncomfortably, and your socks feel squishy. You never really understood why people found the sensation horridly unpleasant, it’s just mildly uncomfortable.

“Howdy!” a familiar voice mumbles. You look down and to the left, to see an echo flower.

You lean down to it. A few seconds pass, and it says “Isn’t that cool?” You hear whispers, and the sloshing of something treading through water.

You stand tall and put your hand on your gun, just in case. You’re in unfamiliar grounds, here, and even though Frisk promised the monsters don’t hurt people, it never hurts to be prepared for the worst. You scan the darkened surroundings. Nothing. Dim light from glowing crystals passes through the water, scattering it in a pattern that reminds you of an indoor pool at night. The debris and sand at the bottom of the stream dims it in some areas, but you’re still able to see pretty well. You suppose you’ve got _that_ going for you.

You continue on. You hold your gun with cold hands and a lump in your throat.

A shrieking voice echoes through the caves. You tread faster, your heart rate accelerating, and you find that you’re in a more illuminated part of the cave. Something drops in your stomach as you see several pairs of glowing eyes turn towards you, that’s the first thing you notice, but...

...

It’s a bunch of Temmies.

“hOI! i’M TEMMIE!!!” one of the dog-sized creatures says, prancing up to you. “aWawawa!!! itz a hOOman!!!” it shrieks, putting its paws up to its face. “so… CUTE!!!” The other Temmies surround you, fawning over you.

“What are y’all doing underground, still?” you ask them, a bit overwhelmed. They stop.

One of the Tems sweats, and their face moves side to side without their head following. You can’t really figure out how that works. “tem canut liv outsidz tem villag! tem only eat tem flakez!”

Oh. “I see,” you say. You don’t actually understand.

You’ve probably only seen one or two Temmies on the surface. You aren’t entirely sure if they were the same Tem, though. Perhaps they’re a hivemind- oh no. A HOIvemind. You restrain yourself from laughing at that joke.

You stay in what you find is Temmie Village for a couple hours. The Temmies tell you how they haven’t had much contact with the rest of the Underground since the Barrier fell, and that only a few Temmies have braved the harsh climates of the other parts of the cave with a bagful of Tem Flakes in stow. You promise them you’ll try to get in touch with the non-Temmie friends of the village, once you reach the Surface again. If you reach the Surface again.

Knowing that you have to go on strengthens your resolve.

You come across a clearing after what feels like forever. You don’t know how you got here, really, but you did. A pool of water rests in the center of this section of the cave, with several offshoots to the sides. The ground here looks well-tread, and you can see many foot, hoof, and paw prints in the dark sand.

You go to your right, and come across a long stretch of cave with fences in it. A few snail shells are scattered in the corner. A worn-out sign says something along the lines of “Blook Family Acres” but you can’t be sure in the dark light. You investigate several other areas, two houses next to each other, both locked, and a burned-down house that’s vaguely shaped like a fish. You can’t tell much of the features other than that. To the south is a hallway filled with garbage. You recall that the city dump is around this distance from the mountain, or at least you think you do. There’s probably a hole to the cave somewhere within that place, and you just haven’t found it. You find a couple stray anime video tapes scattering the ground leading up to the entrance of this flooded area.

You continue on to the last hall, which is directly ahead of where you first entered. There’s a small gap filled with water, you could probably make it if you jumped. You don’t know how deep the water is, though. That’s what worries you.

You get a running start and leap across. You make an indent in the wet dirt from where you landed, and your pant legs are covered in flecks of sandy grime.

You continue on through halls and halls of darkened waterfalls and quiet caves. It’s oddly empty and desolate to you, but something tells you that you’re being watched.


	2. homestuck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> man i love gasters shitty dad puns

I was only 19 at the time.

“Name’s Mika. Mika Richter,” she said, blowing out a puff of cigarette smoke. She leaned against the wall awkwardly as if she were attempting to emulate an anime character. In theory, yeah, that’d be cool, but she didn’t carry herself right. She was too real to be anime, it made her look dumb.  “I’m lookin’ for someone who knows their way around Mt. Ebbott,” she explained. 

It felt oddly silent after she dropped the name of that mountain.

We don’t talk about Mt. Ebbott around here. 

One. Because five people freaking died out there.

Two. They say there’s an entrance to hell in those mountains.

Three. Bigfoot is fucking real, dude.

She read my expression like a piece of paper. She folded her arms and laughed, a dry, unnerving chuckle that somehow was sincere. “Boy, you too? C’mon.”

“I-I’m not a boy,” I mumbled, rubbing the back of my neck. “But, uh, the thing about Ebbott…”

“Haunted n’ stuff. Know the story,” she continued for me. She tapped her foot. “But y’know. Could just be some crazy dude livin’ up there an’ killin’ kids. Police won’t look into it, might as well go up there.”

“You’re not from around here, huh?” 

“Nope.”

“Nobody goes to Ebbott unless they have a death wish.”

“Yeah. Figured you people’d say so.” She pulled out a flip phone- God, those were old- and checked the time. “Well. It’s not like anyone’s stoppin’ me. Like, three kids already’ve gone and y’all didn’t do nothin. They just up. And went. Or got kidnapped.”

* * *

 

You felt trapped. The house began to distort in your mind, simplifying and abstracting in ways that hurt to look at. Your heart began to race and your anxiety grew, though you persevered. 

But you had to leave. Or else you were going to keel over. You were not made for situations like these. You were made for the normal stuff. Guns and drugs and yelling. Not attacks on your very perception of reality.

You went out the door without a second thought.

Outside was cold. The ground was covered in snow and you saw that the house was now in the middle of a forest at night. You looked around even more, starting to pace. Cliffs and such surrounded this area. 

It hit you that it was the middle of June, and midday.

 

You went back inside, tripping, almost.

Gaster lifted a hand towards you, unsure of what to say. ...ARE YOU ALRIGHT, he asked.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” you reassure, breathing shakily. “What… Where are we?”

WE ARE IN THE HOUSE. He grinned- in an approximation of the word. It was fairly unnerving. 

Wow. “I mean, where is  _ this?  _ Outside, everything’s… different!” You couldn’t muster a good enough description, but it got the point across. “Wh- What the hell is going on here?”

CALM DOWN, CHILD. IT IS FINE. He laid a hand on the couch, which warped against his touch. I SUPPOSE MY PRESENCE HAS GLITCHED TIME AND SPACE. 

* * *

 

I have no need for good souls or power among men. An accomplice- proxy is all I need, and you shall be so. 

You are resolute and headstrong. You persevere and determine your own fate.

You know consequences very well. After all, you are not a child.


	3. yellow sould,

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> god i love mika for being a sensible action protagonist

Mika ran her hands through her hair, taking a deep breath. She was alright. She was fine. She just took a little fall, and she could find an exit. Possibly.

She tipped her hat back onto her head, and stood up. She stretched, her back popping. Yikes. When did she ever get prone to those kinds of things?

There was an old stone archway ahead of her. She thought it was as good as any place to start looking for an exit, considering it was the only one.

 

Further into the surreal maze she wandered into, she noticed that this place was so quiet. It was abandoned, she knew, and theories ran through her mind. Maybe this was a to-be theme park, or even an old prehistoric structure. The stonework certainly looked old enough. 

She heard footsteps, and whipped around faster than her hat could handle. It fell back, getting caught by its string on her neck. She gripped her gun and held it up.

A woman- no, a demon stood before her. It took the face of a white goat. It wore dark purple robes, with a strange-looking insignia stitched into it. It spoke with a woman’s voice.

“Ah, do not be afraid! I will not harm you,” it assured, holding its hands in a non-threatening manner. 

Mika gritted her teeth. Her heart was pounding, but she was willing to humor the beast. “...What are you?” she hissed, her eyes wide. She was filled with justice.

The demon’s face held an expression of fear and unsuredness, that is, if Mika was to assume it was. “I… I am a monster- Toriel. I am the caretaker of these ruins.”

Mika looked Toriel up and down, and relaxed a little. She let her gun off its intended mark, and asked, “Are you the only one?” Her breathing was a bit unsteady. She felt like she could trust the monster, but a gut feeling told her not to. She had to see. 

She was met with silence, so she clarified: “...of you? Monsters?”

Toriel lowered her hands. “No. There are others, but they will not hurt you.”

That implies that they will hurt others. Mika felt herself tensing again.

“Why don’t we go somewhere safer? Come with me, my home is not far- I will guide you. The Underground has many things to learn that may prove useful.” 

 

She really didn’t have a choice. She wasn’t sure of what Toriel was capable of, and considering that every creature they came across fled at a moment’s notice… Mika felt like something was wrong. She always assumed the worst, though. Her mother told her never to be quick to judge, but sometimes, Mika had to. And here, she thought she did.

Toriel set down the tea set on the table, and heated the bottom of the pot with fire magic. “I suppose that you would like some answers,” she stated.

Mika stared curiously. “Yeah. I guess.” She was sort of out of words to use. She had practiced so many cool speeches for when she finally enacted justice, but she was sort of choked up on fear. 

Toriel poured two cups, and let them steep. She sat down. “What do you wish to know?” 

Mika looked at the creature. “... There’s been, uh, kids going missin’ at this mountain. I want to know why.”

Toriel began to act aloof. “Ah. I see.”

“You know about it, huh?” Mika was good at reading people, even if they were nine foot tall goat monsters. “Tell me.”

Toriel set down her tea with a sigh. “You are not the first human to arrive in the Underground. I don’t suppose you will be the last, either.” She paused. “... There were six before you. You are the first adult human I have seen in a very long time.”

That got Mika thinking. She took it in stride, but internally, she was super afraid. She wanted to back out, now. She sipped her tea. It was surprisingly good.

Toriel looked at her with concern. “You are not surprised?”

“I’m tryin’ not to get caught up in the monster part,” Mika mumbled.

“Ah.”

“But where did the kids go?” Mika took another sip of her tea.

The monster looked uncomfortable. “They… died, I assume. The only way out of these caves is through the Capitol, where the king resides.”

Mika stared into her cup. “He killed them?” 

“I am sure of it.”

Mika stood up, setting her teacup on its saucer. “Thank you. Can you point me in a direction?”

The monster looked at her with shock. “What?”

She gave a slight smile. “I came here to enact justice, lady. I ain’t gonna stay here forever, either.”

Toriel stood as well. “I… It would be unwise. They will- they  _ will  _ kill you. Down here- to humans- it is kill or be killed. What you are planning…”

“Brash and stupid, yeah, figured you’d say that. But! I have a gun!” Mika pulled out her revolver, holding it limply. “Judgin’ by how you reacted to it, you things can be hurt.”

 

Toriel had pointed Mika in the direction of the Capitol, which she said had several towns between the Ruins and it. The first place was Snowdin, a small town covered in perpetual snow. Most monsters there had never seen a human, and would probably never recognize one. But to be safe, Toriel offered her a cloak to hide her face.

She felt like she was on a fantasy quest, now. 

Tall stalagmites and mineral pillars covered this area, resembling trees. The ground was blanketed in snowy sludge, but there was a somewhat worn path that Mika could follow. It led to a bridge, which led to a small clearing.

It was dark, but something lit everything- the color of it reminded her of fluorescent tube lights at a hospital. She couldn’t perceive the source of the light. She assumed it was magic.

She continued on, holding the brim of her hat with worried hands. The leather worked itself away in her grip, the rawhide thinning slightly. She cursed herself, this was no time to be ruining her hat. She had to go kill a monster.

She was filled with a sense of justice. And she would resolve this mystery.

 

The path to Snowdin was filled with various puzzles and traps, all very strange and gamelike in design. She hadn’t encountered any monsters, yet, and it made her on edge. She could see the town in the distance- dim lights giving it away. She stepped forward, and heard a crinkle of paper. Mika looked down. On the ground was a newspaper crossword, scribbled on in ridiculous looking handwriting in red pen.  

She picked it up, inspecting it closer. The words were all filled in with either real words or just “Z”s. The crossword seemed to be monster-themed, from what the definitions were.

Mika bundled it up and stuffed it in her satchel. Nice keepsake, she guessed. If she left the Underground. That was what Toriel had called it, might as well assign a name to this place.

 

 

[there was a link to bloodborne ost - the first hunter here but its broken]

 

Snowdin was a quiet little town filled with strange faces. Mika laughed internally, as they reminded her of the time she had accidentally stumbled into a furry convention, because these creatures were all animal-like. They seemed to pay her no mind, perhaps visitors were common in this place. And none of them had recognized her as human.

Towards the edge-end of the town was a house decked in pirate flags and Christmas lights. She thought it strange, but as soon as the stoop came into her focus she realized- 

There were skeletons who lived here. One of them- a short one- waved as she passed, she waved back, nervously.

 

Next, Toriel said, was Waterfall. She told her that the place was crawling with extra guards with the introduction of a new hole in the ceiling, she’d found out from a friend outside the Ruins. This would possibly be her first challenge.

 

A monster child, a mermaid-like creature, sat along the a ledge. Mika wasn’t sure of their gender, if they had one. They caught sight of Mika, and smiled. “Yo!” they called out, smiling at her with sharp teeth that stuck out.“You here to see the Royal Guard in action, too?” 

Mika stopped out of politeness. “You could say that,” she mumbled. “Don’t you think it’d be too dangerous for a kid, though?”

The monster grinned even bigger. “No! If a bad guy shows up, I’ll beat them up!” They pounded their fists together. “And if a human shows up, I’ll take their soul!” Wow. Morbid.

Mika couldn’t help but giggle, though. “I should get going, then.” 

“Great! I’ll follow you! Strength in numbers, right?”

“Yeah.”

Mika didn’t have the heart to tell the monster to leave. They were still a child, she could tell about that. She assumed they were around thirteen years old, but she was guessing on human standards. She didn’t know much about monsters, still.

 

They reached a section of the caves filled with a field of flowers, all pale glowing blue. It felt like a whisper in here. The monster child leaned down to one of the flowers. “I never really understood what was so great about Echo flowers. They’re kinda creepy.” The flower repeated what she said.

Mika raised an eyebrow. “Echo flowers?”

The monster kid smiled. “Yeah, Echo flowers. They repeat anything you say. In Waterfall we wish on them.”

“Cool.”

The fish monster’s eyes widened as they looked behind Mika. “Whoa!” they interjected. “It’s Gerson!” 

Mika looked behind her. A monster, a tortoise of some sort, decked in dazzling black armor, stood among the flowers. Two more were behind him, but they were both helmeted and indistinct from each other. The trio looked like formidable opponents, and Mika subconsciously reached for her gun on its holster.

“Ah, Undyne!” Gerson said, smiling. “You made a friend, I see.”

Undyne ran up to him. “Yeah!”

Gerson looked up to Mika, squinting. Mika felt cold. “You didn’t hurt her, thanks for that. Who are you, human?” 

Undyne’s eyes widened, and she looked back and forth at between the two. “They’re a human?”

The jig was up. Mika inhaled sharply. “Someone fighting for justice.”

“Justice?”

“I'm going to avenge the deaths of the others.” Mika assessed if the three were even going to harm her. They had their hands on their swords, but did not draw them, thank God for that.


	4. a friend and a fusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> oh yeah i had ocs that were monsters too  
> this is so sad mettaton play death by glamour

"Meyer, no. I couldn't kill you, not even as a mercy," I said, holding their face in my paw. 

They smiled weakly. "Hell, Enno. I'm old. I'm not going to live forever anyways. And 'sides, from... from what I'm seein' in the- your near future... you're going to need my soul. The humans on the coast... the ones coming in... they're not like me or the tribes. They'll kill you without second thought." Meyer breathed in sharply, holding their leg. "There will be a war. And it will be because of your- the monsters' abilities- to take our souls. Your- Our power will be great. We can help turn the tides... prevent a massacre..." 

I couldn't bear to look at them in the eye.

"Enno. Just do it. I forgive you, it'll be easier. I've lost most of my hopes for a future when I got this, so..." 

I took a deep breath. "I'll be gentle."

"Please don't. That's how you miss."

Their reddish soul floated upwards. I was careful to pull out the magical energy that formulated a FIGHT.  Meyer closed their eyes. This would only be for a moment. They accepted their death, I could see it in their face. They'd almost lost all hope.

Alright. Time to do the dirty work. I focused in on the magical barriers separating Meyer from their physical form. It was different for everyone I'd performed soul magic on, but for Meyer, I rationalized it as a ring around them. I braced myself, taking a deep breath before ripping the SOUL from that ring. You could say I hesitated for a moment.

I likened it to pulling a tooth. In my hand actualized a human soul, red-pink and fresh with the metallic smell of blood. It was not their heart, but sure felt like it, still warm and pulsing. I stared into it.

This was the whole of Meyer's being, their personhood, their love, their knowledge. They were giving me all of this. They were giving me the chance to become one with them, to show me what they really were deep down. There were many reasons humans and monsters did not fuse or accept each other's souls- it made them into a being of both of their values. They needed to be the same in goal or love each other very much to stay in high hopes.

I looked down to their body. It looked as if they were just sleeping. Humans were strange, they didn't disappear after they died. Their matter forms- like many animals- gave them strength and endurance, but as a result, they were constantly turning to dust. That was why they ate and took energy into themselves. They could not regenerate so naturally like a monster, they had to heal and heal and heal with energy and other things.

I held the soul closer to me. The body in front of me was not Meyer, but this was. Meyer was not dead, not yet. I closed my eyes, and took a deep breath in.

I accepted the human into my soul.

We opened our eyes.

This was considerably different. We- I was exactly the same as before. We were different, though. We felt less tangible, less actual, more like a thought. It shook us. 

I was used to it. I was like this my whole life. But we were now one, and our memories and experiences were melding together- the only analogy good enough is to pour two different cups of water into a bucket. They're all water, indistinguishable from coming from either source as soon as they mix. But it's easy to filter out the big bits, the dirt and mud.

Meyer was full of so many experiences. They were from across the rising sun. The world they left behind was monsterless, and full of supremacy. It fostered separatism and competition, and I could see why it was too much for them. They left with the hope of acceptance.

I was different. To us, I was eternal, ancient, an ocean of memories (As we were going off of the water analogy) that all felt entirely different than ours. I was older than we expected, which was fun to know. I laughed. We laughed.

There were no secrets that I held that interested us. We weren't trying to be cold, but we just accepted that I was different.

We looked down at our body- my body- Meyer's body. Knowing I was looking at it too, it felt weird. 

We wanted to see ourselves through another's eyes. Even if we were stiff and cold. We prodded at the now dead flesh, looking at it with interest. I made no attempts to stop us. We found that our eyes... We knew it was strange that we were looking at them with no life in them. The eyes did not hold that same focus and determination as before, given the memories I was holding.

After that was all and done, we asked myself something. I was eager  and already knew- we wanted to be cremated. We had been living under monster customs and way of life for so long, it was only appropriate. Also, burying bodies was time consuming. It was easier just to use fire magic. 


	5. transcript in the vein of scp

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> what  
> i literally do not understand where i was going with this

[START OF TRANSCRIPT]

8:50 AM, OCT 5 2035

EBBOTT, [REDACTED]

Agent C approaches Fredrickson Mall. Agent B leads ahead. 

Agent B: And as I was saying, if it’s gonna kill us, it would’ve in the first place.

Agent C: You don’t know that.

Agent B turns around, walking backwards. 

Agent B: Got me there.

Agent B shrugs nonchalantly, then turns to face forward.

Agent C and B move into the building. Several monsters and humans populate the sparse area. 

Further inwards, Agent B stops Agent C. B points to a door. It is slate grey, unlabeled, and has a quality similar to computer editing.

C: Backstage?

B: Likely. It’s the grey.

C: Should-

B: No.

C: Y’think it’s watching us?

Agent B looks to Agent C with a concerned expression. She slouches slightly.

B: Probably.

Several seconds pass.

B: Let’s get moving.

Cut to Agent B and Agent C in an indoor garden, filled with Echo Flowers. Indecipherable whispers fill most of the audio. On-person microphones were used to make up for this.

B: [offscreen] Fucking flowers.

C: Shh.

B: Hm?

C: They can repeat you.

B: So?

Agent C turns to face Agent B. The body camera’s audio cuts out. Behind Agent B is a monster, a small flower with a face. It is barely noticeable as Agent B is in the way.

C: So, what I’m saying is-

Agent C stops.

B: So what?

C: So what I’m saying is, you should be more careful about what you say around kids. 

B: Nobody’s-

Camera shakes slightly as Agent C motions something.

Agent B turns around, their body in the way of the shot. 

B: There’s nobody there.

C: What?

The microphones stop responding. Several layers of white noise play instead of regular audio. 

Agents B and C approach the planter in which the monster was in. Nothing is there other than echo flowers. The video begins to glitch.

Data repair was only able to save several seconds of the visual feed, but it is apparent that several minutes have been lost. Agent C runs down several down hallways, and the video returns to them running in the woods.

An unknown voice speaks, later identified to be the 1A-D monster.

1A-D: You’re here to kill [undecipherable]

Agent C trips, flat on the camera, breaking it. A large crack obscures most of the view.

C: God damn it-

1A-D:  [garbled] It’s too late! Chara’s already done it!

C: Fucking-

Fast movement can be deciphered from the cracked camera.

C: Christ! Fuck!

1A-D: I’ve made a promise not to kill any humans. But you- you people, you’re sick! 

1A-D: That’s something, coming from me! 

1A-D:  haha

 

get fukt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> get fukt, i guess


	6. whoa more weird sciency shit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> while i was writing this junk i was having a breakdown because i watched this house has people in it and had an intense need to make sense of all of it

Subject shows adverse reactions to any DT formula before DT-12. Agents 1 through 8 have been lost. Please refer to your continuity documents before proceeding.

Agent 13 has become an anomaly. Due to their existing condition of RN, termination seems impossible via subject’s conditions. Possible connection to 201X DIED event. May have reason to investigate LOV connection. If Agent 13 persists to cause RIEDs, induce a DIED regardless of progress with the subject.

 

TN has yet to be tested. Fear of connection with Lynk’s Disorder, Infectious Cognitohazardous Information, Peaksville Syndrome, and reverberator attraction halt any production of the chemical. Any unauthorized use of TN will result in a sector-wide molecular debonding and subsequent energy-particle cleansing.

 

NOTE:  _ Reminder to all employees that EDs have serious consequences on our reality. Please desist misuse of company resources to induce events for personal gain. If these fluctuations persist, we  _ **_will_ ** _ assign you to Disposable. We cannot afford silliness. The fate of mankind (and monsterkind) rests on us. _

 

Since the 201X DIED event, the likeliness of TN particle disorders have increased at a steady rate. The use of DIEDs to prevent these TN particles from occurring has actually  _ increased  _ the amount of TN particles, much to our concern. It may be a matter of time before humanity goes extinct via matter conversion destabilization scenario as projected.

 

Anons and muns have begun to increase congruent to this TN increase. 

 

Determination-induced Existence Distortion

Resolution-induced Existence Distortion

Tenacity-induced Existence Distortion

TIED

 

_ Have you ever had your own ghost haunt you _

_ Like its fucking macbeth in this bitch and im simultaneously macbeth and yo boy banquo _

_ Here from the not so distant future to tell me not to fuck up _

_ And drive me nuts by partially phasing through things _

_ Just generally freaking me out dude _

_ Out of all the things that could conceivably go wrong having banquo me be one of those things is super unlikely yet it fucking happened anyways _

_ this is what i get for tenacity _

 

[Writing on the wall of establishment ||||||||||| ||||||||||||'s bathroom, in Ebbott, ||||||||||||. TN particles detected in area required quarantine. Discovered by Agent ||||||||||||||||.]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dark souls "YOU DIED" screen


	7. @ past ghost stop making gaster evil maybe?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> or at least less morally grey????????????? also what the fuck???????????????

It seems so long after the events surrounding Mt. Ebbot, and the release of monsters upon the world. Frisk had always been used to the confines of those same weeks back then- repeated over and over again, like a broken record that could never be dealt with. Yet they did have control over the passage of time branching from that experience. Frisk just never thought but to keep trying to do what they thought was right. And what was right to them, well, was trying to SAVE much more than just their friends. They wanted to SAVE more than that. Every monster. Every timeline. "I tried," Frisk would think, looking back on it, nearly six years later.

Being eighteen (or simply appearing eighteen) was a mark of courage for Frisk. They were less dependent on others, and had learned so much from both school and their own experience. Frisk made friends, made experiences, let their life proceed. That was an achievement for anyone, especially in the year of 2041, a year marked by turmoil and economic recession.  People were quick to accept that they themselves wouldn't change at all. But not Frisk. They had the determination, and the other things, to help themself to whatever goal they wished to achieve.

Such as, well, getting an apartment for themself. Frisk knew it wasn't necessary to move out from Toriel's, but they thought it'd be a good to as a matter of personal achievement. Being the designated human ambassador for the Monster Kingdom had standards- especially if every step that Frisk took was studied closely by the rest of the human race. And the human race, as it seemed, valued self-sufficiency and independence. 

There was no great ceremony to moving into the apartment complex in [REDACTED] City, the capitol of the state nearby Ebbot.  Frisk had said their goodbyes to Toriel and Sans, and packed their things, as was any teen with their parents. Then they moved in, simple as that. Of course, maybe one or two of the movers had recognized Frisk, with simple comments as "Oh, it's that guy! I knew that name was familiar!" or "Whoa, you're Frisk? You look so much different on TV!" 

Frisk was used to it by now, honestly. No, not honestly. Actually, they didn't seem to care. The reactions of other people never seemed to phase them anymore. Not even the bad ones. They had been through much more than just what people knew of them.

When all was said and done Frisk was left alone in an unfurnished room with three stacks of boxes, and a couch.

The first thought that Frisk had was, of course, "How am I going to unpack?" The second came when a cardboard box filled with a seemingly random assortment of junk caught Frisk's eye. Of course, these items weren't random. They were remains, of a sort. Mementos, grave markers, whatever they interpreted at the moment for them. A toy knife and a ribbon, a fingerless glove and a bandanna, a pair of ballet shoes and a tutu... All of them were here. Even the real knife. Even the locket.

They had hastily put it in a box and brought it with them, without second thought. These items held more than the significance of a souvenir to Frisk of the time they spent trying to SAVE the Monster Kingdom. They were a reminder. A reminder like a ghost, a weight on their shoulders reeking of maleficence. As much as these were what remained of the humans whose souls were spent freeing monsterkind, they were also Frisk's weapons and armor. They needed not to be literal in their material and use. They needed not to even have ever been used, not even for a moment, here in this world, this version of reality. Frisk never used them, not to anyone's knowledge.

But in other realities, other thoughts, other paths, they did, and they regretted each moment of it. Every act of violence they undid with their will was another weight on Frisk's soul, and on the memory of every monster. It didn't matter if they had the same awareness of Frisk's determination, or even the time travel that was acted out, each monster bore some sort of mark in their soul. 

Frisk sat down on the couch, staring deeply at the small dagger that the first human was given once. It was Frisk's now, though technically ownerless, and technically that human's at the same time as the other two states. They remembered. They always had to remember. Frisk's wicked sense of sentimentality, their strangeness of the heart, their soullessness, it always had to be like this. Frisk had to remember. The genocide. The mercy they would not give. Didn't matter who, it was always to erase the world, start over, try to up a counter somewhere in the code of reality. Some thought once given to Frisk was that if they did certain things, it would change other timelines. Another thought was to try and delve deep into the void, searching for the ones who could not be reached.

 

In one timeline, Frisk had done exactly that. They lost themself to reason and other thinking, believing there to be infinite possibilities, and nearly destroying their very memory to forces beyond their reach. Their determination, their will to live, it saved them, and SAVED them, unlike...

It hurt to think about that for long. Not because of the memory. Because Frisk knew something was missing. That very thing that was missing was why they tried to reach what was missing. And what was missing, was a monster. Five of them, actually.  One seemingly more important than the rest.

They bore the pain of knowing the name of the monster who started it all. 

Doctor Wingdings Gaster was a monster, a ghoul with little moral standard and enough determination and violence in his soul to have split the timeline more than Frisk would ever have hoped to achieve. He existed outside of time because of his own foolishness, or, at least, in this version of reality he had influenced. 

In this version of reality that Frisk was sure they resided in, Wingdings was a scientist for the Monster Kingdom. He had been the one to take the soul of the first of the six humans to fall into the Monster Kingdom since 201X. He had done it before, and it was certainly his level of violence that allowed this. 

He was even as strange as to try necromancy (and using other people) to circumvent the Barrier. This is where Sans and Papyrus came in. They were reanimated corpses powered by fragments of Gaster's own soul. This was common, once, three hundred years before that fateful imprisonment. 

Gaster himself was also a relic of those times, and also a relic of a version of the past untainted by the influence of determination. Frisk was sure it was either them or Chara who had ensured his eventual so-called death. A future version, or a past version, didn't matter, what was done was done. The only remnants were his creations, the CORE, and his sons.

Frisk didn't blame Gaster for doing the things he did, though. Of course, they were abhorrent. Of course, he was abusive. But like Frisk, he had a plan. And no sense of morality. In a way, they were both alike. More alike than Frisk would imagine, as it turned out.

They knew the ways to get to Gaster. A value they called "Fun" was there, hard-coded into the fabric of time. It was less descriptive than, say, [Asgore] KillYou, but mysterious enough to have been changed more than enough times. Frisk knew it was a random number. They made sure to change it manually.

In Waterfall, there was a door that would appear under certain conditions. The first time Frisk had achieved this was on accident. The door led to a room, one with a facsimile of a monster residing in it, boiling and recoiling in its own mass as it reacted to Frisk's presence. When Frisk attempted to even interact, it would fade away. After a while, the being would fail to show up.

When they looked deep into the code of reality, they knew that this wasn't just some byproduct of time travel. This was the remains of someone integral to a story Frisk had been trying to uncover from the very beginning, Doctor Wingdings Gaster himself.

So Frisk started to search for him almost liberally throughout every value and location, even on the brief moments they'd be on the overworld. They knew that who or whatever this was, it had the answers. Why can I do this? Who exactly was Chara? What constitutes the nature of a SOUL, and why can it persist across timelines like mine? And why is memory tied outside of time?

Frisk got their answer eventually. It was the benefit of being stubborn. And the drawback, as time progressed and Frisk matured and regarded the event differently.

A route less than savory. A time less than forgivable. Human nature shone through Frisk like the sun in the deep sea- that is, kindness was obscured by layers upon layers of brutality and might. And that was what these circumstances were. A grey door appeared in the more unlikely places- in the Ruins of the Old Monster Kingdom, a while after Toriel had left Frisk to wait. This was unprecedented, but valued as a source of information. 

The door opened on its own, it seemed, before it was known that Gaster had done so. He moved with less of a wobble than the unstable form Frisk had come to recognize, so when he moved and behaved and shaped himself to be more in the form of a human, it raised some concern. He glid across the floor without even a step to announce his arrival, and the void that was his body formed like a cloak across a skeletal form. It was like watching Death, if Death was melting and far more absurdly unnerving than the average human would like to admit.

Gaster made no noise, no undecipherable voice to address Frisk as they exchanged a stare. And by making no noise, Frisk meant it. He did not speak, yet words were conveyed.

I SEE YOU WANT ANSWERS.

The thought seemed to be coming from Frisk's own mind, but its internal voice was so alien that Frisk just knew. It was him. They nodded, and though they would not like to admit it, they did so with a face of bewilderment uncharacteristic of them.

I BELIEVE WE MAY COME TO AN AGREEMENT. COME. 

He turned, phasing into the darkness that covered the inside of the doorframe. Frisk thought nothing but to follow. They were willing to do anything at this point to understand. They had already bargained away their soul. They had already damned themself with unforgivable acts against others. What else they had to lose, Gaster would know, and what else they had to learn, Gaster would also know.

 

The feeling of walking through this door, compared to every other unnatural shift Frisk had experienced before then, was at most, something that instilled the worst feeling of dread they'd felt in their entire life up to that point. It felt akin to the sinking drop one would hear when they heard a incoming alarm for a storm warning, or a possible missile strike. It was the same feeling of unsuredness and fear to confirm the reality, so Frisk closed their eyes to deny what they were seeing. They still could feel that dread, however, and it didn't help to delay the inevitable.

It was akin to being able to see the very manifestation of dissociation- more than three dimensions made it even more intense. Visual contradictions scattered the very atoms that composed this room, and it was more than uncomfortable to look at.

Gaster settled on what must have been a seat of some sort, it was hard to tell at this point. 

I UNDERSTAND THIS MAY COME AS UPSETTING TO YOU DUE TO YOUR HISTORY OF VIOLENCE.

Things came into clearer focus, in the loose sense of the word. Frisk began to recognize the rough shapes of the datamoshed reality that surrounded them. Figures obscured by shattering and dust were made clearer as Frisk recognized the colours, the patterns, the ideas conveyed. It was the room where it happens. Asgore's throne room. The moment that Frisk realized that there was no turning back from their actions. 

But their dread strangely faded and their grief turned to apathy. Frisk knew they didn't like this. They knew that whatever was shown here, it wasn't important. This was just the setting for something bigger. Frisk forced their emotions to leave, similar to expunging an unwanted guest who had stayed far too long. 

"It doesn't," Frisk said, barely a tilt or an inflection in their voice. They thought for a second. "I... Who... Ah, what happened to you?"

The colours and forms shifted like a bad Powerpoint transition. Eventually, Frisk made out the form of a room within the CORE. 

I FELL DOWN. I PERSISTED. SUCH IS THE STRANGENESS THAT ENGULFS REALITY.  BUT THAT NEEDN'T MATTER. YOU WILL HELP ME, AND IN RETURN, IT WILL GIVE YOU WHAT YOU SEEK- THE MISSING PIECES IN YOUR SO-CALLED 'CODE.'

The room materialized more, taking a more coherent and three-dimensional shape. It was a room in the Lab, in the further basements that Frisk had never been. The insulated brick and steel walls and the clinical sterility gave it away. 

"Help you?"

Gaster turned to address the human. His face was already melting. He couldn't stay physically coherent long enough. 

YOU WILL PROVIDE ME WITH "DETERMINATION."

Frisk laughed. It was not a funny laugh. There are moments in which people make jokes that are not sensitive to the plights and histories of others, and moments when people say things that are less than appropriate to the political climate of the time. In those times, usually the friends of those said people will be uncomfortable, too uncomfortable to voice their differing opinions and ruin their social status. So they make a facsimile of a laugh, but it is very telling that they disapprove. It usually sounds less as "Hahaha dude what!!!" and more like "Ha ha ha,  _ what the fuck _ ?" There is a very large difference in the oration of this kind of sound, and this is the kind that Frisk laughed. 

"What the fuck? That's all you need?" Frisk wasn't averse to swearing, but they did keep their language confined for a reason. There were times when you needed to say "fuck." This was one of them.

AMONG OTHER THINGS. IN THE FUTURE, YOU WILL ASSIST ME FURTHER, BUT "DETERMINATION" IS ALL YOU MUST GIVE FOR NOW.

"In which future?"   
WHEN YOU HAVE ADVANCED IN YOUR STUDIES.

Frisk would have made a comment at that. But at the same time, they knew what he meant.

But Frisk was also unsure on how to even "give" determination. It wasn't something one could just do. Determination was a feeling to them, it wasn't some sort of power that they tapped into anymore. So to take or give it was an alien concept. The only thing they could think of was the DT extractor, but they had tested it before, in a far-off timeline. There was no way that it could work on a soul without...

"You intend to take my soul," Frisk said, coming to the conclusion that he definitely wanted to kill them. They were unsure if they could even FIGHT the doctor, but they kept using fighting words. The provocation was clear. "That's what you want, right? I can see the air quotes. You're not fooling me."

Gaster made no comment, no action against this. It could have been confirmation of this implication, and nothing said otherwise. He pondered- then replied.

NO. I ONLY NEED YOUR BLOOD.

"Oh, my  _ blood,  _ that sounds  _ so  _ much better." Frisk wasn't buying into whatever he had devised, but they were willing to go along. They were keenly aware that whatever Gaster was devising was ethically questionable, and it was even more troubling that he wanted their blood. What kind of man- or monster- would ask that of a child? "Especially to a  _ child.  _ Do you know how much blood I have? Not a lot. Probably three quarts less than an adult." 

Frisk stared him down.

"Okay,  _ sure _ . Take my blood."

It didn't help that Frisk was also quite ignorant of how, exactly, determination worked. They were understanding of how it  _ felt  _ and how it  _ acted _ , but the physics of it was beyond their knowledge. Frisk could write a billion songs, analogies, and freestyle poems about determination, but to put determination in math would be akin to describing colour to someone who was born blind. One could make words as much as they wanted, but it would never truly describe it accurately.

So when Gaster offered these answers for the elusive code and math that described the nebulous feeling that was determination, Frisk couldn't decline. They would give their own blood, even their own existence to understand the vast sea of power they contained. 

Gaster did not use instruments to remove blood from Frisk. He could have used a syringe, or a torturous instrument, or a variety of other archaic tools. In the Void, Gaster was practically God. He could shift the plane into anything he wanted. The container he held filled with blood, and Frisk suddenly felt lightheaded.

Frisk knew the feeling of lightheadedness from bloodloss was different than the lightheadedness that came from getting attacked by magic. They also knew that strange scientists that lead children into different planes of existence for their blood had no honor. 


End file.
